


Heart of a Giant

by AnonEhouse



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-22
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-03-08 16:18:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3215537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-serum Steve is tiny, really tiny. But he has the heart of a giant, and when the need arises, Howard knows he can count on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart of a Giant

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

It's all confusion and jostling and movement in the dark, of being held by a strong grip. There's the scent of bodily fluids and the rapid clicking of weapons being deployed. As young as Steve is, he realizes they've been invaded. He wishes he could fight back instead of being a burden, but there's nothing he can do.

The sounds and smells of battle recede; the crush around him diminishes until he can hear the individual patter of feet against the forest loam. He'd never left the nursery, wasn't really expected to live, he knew that and had accepted it, so this was all exciting to him. He was a little ashamed of himself, to be rejoicing in new experiences gained at the cost to others, and he was also a little ashamed that in the confusion he'd been saved instead of someone stronger, more valuable to society. Steve had wanted to grow up to be a soldier, but his flabby, pasty body had been obviously lacking even to his dim eyes.

Eventually he fell asleep, cradled by someone who smelled like home, and soothed him with soft clucking noises. 

When Steve woke, there was light, more light than was ever permitted in the nursery where the weak ones were tended. He looked around. He was lying on leaves instead of his usual bed, and the walls around were a combination of dirt and massive tree roots showing that they were in a natural hollow, not the city of his birth where every surface spoke of those who'd come before Steve. There were a few older kids, and several adults. None of the adults were soldiers.

He struggled upright. One of the adults moved close to help him. "Who?" Steve asked, when he focused enough to see the concerned face bent above him. "You're not... you don't work in the nursery." The nursery workers were tough ladies, not as strong as soldiers, but bigger than this sleek stranger. And there was something else different about this person, but Steve's eyes weren't good enough to give details.

"No, I'm a pilot. Name's Howard." 

"A pilot?" Steve had heard about them. They went wherever they liked, and they were romantic figures, suitors for the queen's favor. "The queen! You should have saved her, not me!"

Howard shrugged. "Peggy's tough, too tough for me to move her against her will. She'll hold out against the Reds for a long time."

Steve didn't think Howard sounded as if he believed what he said. "We're going to fight back, right?"

"Well, that's up to you, Steve."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I need you, kid. There's this project Erskine and I were working on."

"Erskine?" Steve peered around at the other adults.

"Erskine didn't make it. An infiltrator got him. But he'd made up a batch of his super soldier formula and I brought it away with us. There's only enough for one."

Steve was weak, but he wasn't stupid. "If it's so great, why haven't you taken it?"

"Because it won't work right on adults. The Reds used something like it on one of their pilots. He's a monster. Half the time he even tries to murder his own folks. They call him the Red Kill because of that." Howard paused. "I'll be honest with you, I'm not even sure it won't kill you. Erskine said he thought it failed because the Red Kill was already a soldier, and we needed someone fresh and unspoiled. Someone who thought about the good of others, not about the joy of slaughter. But that's all guesswork."

After a moment, Steve nodded. "Give it to me."

 

It hurt. It hurt like acid through his whole body, forcing changes in a few seconds that no one should ever go through, and certainly not so fast. Steve didn't scream, but the stench of his pain and terror filled the little makeshift tube Howard had carved out of the hard-packed clay soil to keep Steve from hurting himself when he thrashed in agony.

When it was over, Steve broke through the clay and stood up on strong legs, and looked around with bright eyes. 

"It worked!" Howard said gleefully, and ran forward to touch Steve's chest admiringly. "Better than we'd hoped. How do you feel?"

"Bigger," Steve said. "Guide me back home. I'll take care of the Red Kill."

"You got it, Steve!" Howard scuttled to the opening and spread his wings. "Follow me!"

Steve clacked his sharp, shiny mandibles and strode off after Howard. The Reds were going to rue the day they invaded Steve's anthill.

**Author's Note:**

> Ant genders are confusing. An unfertilized egg becomes a male, so that's what Steve was, albeit an undersized one, but soldiers/big head workers are females. Steve stayed male, but he became huge and with the weaponry of an outsized soldier. 
> 
> Howard is a winged male, and I'm going with the more recent ideas that males don't just exist to mate and then die, but can live outside of the nest, etc. 
> 
> (The Serum was actually based on Royal Jelly, stolen from a beehive, but I couldn't figure how to put that in, without giving the show away.)
> 
> I wanted to tag this 'AU-Animals' but even that would have given too much away.


End file.
